PvP Combat
PvP Combat is perhaps the most complex aspect of CotG. As the game progresses, hundreds of players each controlling armies of millions will be maneuvering to expand their empires, control strategic locations, and win the Crown. This page contains most of the factual information you need to know about PvP Combat and some discussion of strategies. If you want to explore PvP more in depth, check out the CotG Guides page. Military Commands (PvP) In any PvP attack, all the defending troops in a city (including reinforcement from other cities) fight each attacker separately. For example, if you send three Assaults to a city at the exact same time, each Assault will still independently fight all of the defending troops. Thus it is generally a good strategy to consolidate offense into a few large attacks, rather than many small ones. There are five commands you may use to send your troops to other players' cities. Four of them are offensive, while the last one, "reinforce," is used to support allies. The offensive commands can only be used in Castled cities. Scout Only scouts can be sent in a scouting attack and they only fight scouts at the defending castle. All other units are ignored. Scouting is used to gain information on an an enemy city's structures, troops, resources, and defenses. The amount of surviving attacking scouts (SAS) and surviving defending scouts (SDS) determines the information in the scouting report. *If there are no SAS, no information is gained. *If there are any SAS, the amount and type of all defending troops is revealed. *If SAS is greater than SDS, the amount of resources that can be plundered is revealed. *If SAS is greater than twice the SDS, the amount and levels of defenses is revealed. *If SAS is greater than four times the SDS, the amount and levels of all buildings is revealed. Plunder Plundering is a single attack used to steal resources from an enemy city. The defender takes minimal losses. Plundering may be used against any city. Assault Assaulting is a single attack used to kill enemy troops and may only be used against Castled cities. Siege Sieging is a prolonged attack used to capture a city, destroy a city, or "lock" it. A siege lasts until the attacker withdraws, the city is captured, or all the attacking troops are killed. During a siege, troops fight at one-hour intervals with 1/5 the damage of an Assault. During a siege, defending troops and resource shipments may not leave the city, although resources may be sent to the city. During a siege, all reinforcing troops (from other cities) eat food from the besieged city, so it is important to keep track of food levels. Sieging is the only way to deal damage to a city with artillery (don't send your artillery in an Assault!). When a Senator is sent in a siege, the attacking player will gain Claim each hour. Claim starts at 0%; if it reaches 100% the city is captured. The amount of claim gained each hour is determined by the hourly siege battles, ranging from 0% to 10% increase. If the Senator is killed, the Claim is reset to 0%. Bringing multiple Senators in a siege does not increase Claim faster but does prevent the Claim reset if one Senator is killed. Reinforce Reinforce is used to defend other cities (your own or allies'). Once sent, reinforcing troops stay at the target city until recalled or killed. Attack Penalties All attack penalties affect all attack types (scout, plunder, assault and siege), building and fortification damage, and senator siege claims. They do not affect troops sent using "reinforce". All of the attack penalties stack (additively or multiplicatively?). After-Dark Penalty From 00:00 to 08:00 server time every night, all PvP attacks have a 40% penalty (cavern/boss raids and sieges on abandoned towns are unaffected). For the two hours on either side of these times, the penalty will ramp up to and down from the full 40% penalty: * From 08:00 to 10:00 the penalty will decrease from 40% to 0% at the rate of 1% every 3 minutes. * From 22:00 to 00:00 the penalty will increase from 0% to 40% at the rate of 1% every 3 minutes. Morale Penalty In order to stop large players "farming" small players, there is a Morale penalty in the game. If an attacker is more than 5 times the empire score of a defender, a morale penalty is applied to the attacker, according to the equation (attacker_score/defender_score)*10 Some examples of Morale penalties: * attacker has 10 times the score (e.g. 100,000 score player attacking a 10,000 score player) = 100% * 20 times the score = 200% * 30 times the score = 300% The maximum morale penalty that can be incurred is 500%. Portal Penalty For information on portals see Portals. Troops attacking through a portal receive a penalty if they travel more than 5 squares from their home location. After the first 5 squares, penalty is incurred according to the equation (1-7000/(65+distance)/100)*100. Troops sent using the "reinforce" command receive no penalty. Some examples of portal penalties: * 5 squares = no penalty * 10 squares = 6.7% penalty (i.e. 93.3% attack strength) * 25 squares = 22.22% penalty * 45 squares = 36.36% penalty * 70 squares = 48.14% penalty The maximum portal penalty that can be incurred is 75% penalty. Creating a Military Military cities should only contain military buildings, with a few exceptions. This specialization increases the size and recruitment speed of your army. Exceptions: *Warehouses: necessary to hold resources to construct buildings, recruit and feed troops, and store loot. Two to three next to a grain mill are usually enough. *Hideout (Castled city): Often overlooked, a single hideout will prevent your troops from immediately starving if an attacker plunders your resources. *Sorcerer's tower: To refine resources *Forum: To transport resources. *Farms: For players without councillors, self-fed military cities are easier to manage. Early in the game, you can't afford to make pure military cities. If you want a military early, build mixed cities. Later in the game, with enough resources, you can speed build full military cities (look around CotG Guides for optimal military city layouts) by: #Build 30-40 cottages to level 5-7 #Place all of your recruitment buildings (and a Castle if you want one). #Use the rest of your building slots for barracks #Level all military buildings to 10 #One by one, destroy a cottage and replace it with a barracks and level it to 10. Military Strategy Category:Combat Category:Stubs